Print Edition

Trade bodies line up to make the case for art and antiques sector

The Bovey Pottery Company, closed in 1957, would have passed into collecting history without incident had it not been for the ‘Our Gang’ collection of figures.

Nicholas Mellors Auctioneers in Newark has closed but Newark Antiques will continue to trade.

The London Original Print Fair, now in its 32nd year, takes place at the Royal Academy from May 4-7 and features 51 international dealers and print publishers.

No fewer than 840 lots were offered in the bumper April 5-6 sale held by Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium). The most successful of them, at a record £32,000, was a presentation copy of a pioneering work that has been described as “the first practical statement of socialist doctrine”, Robert Owen’s A New View of Society… of 1813-14.

The next Chelsea Art Fair takes place from April 27-30 and, as fair director Ben Cooper sees it, the attraction of the event comes down to two key elements: quality and breadth of selection.

This 8¾in (23cm) diameter Liverpool delft charger, dated 1738, is initialled MML for Michael and Mary Lightfoot, members of a Quaker family who lived in Chester County.

Keeley Harris is so pleased with the way her vintage home shows are going that she is expanding them.

MADAM – I have been reading the responses in your letters pages from the antiques trade to the stringent ivory laws appearing around the world.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Gary Wallis is based in Henley-on-Thames, trades in anything from childhood collectables to potential heirlooms and is a regular at The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

An ‘Unfashionable’ single-owner collection from a London club attracted trade and private buyers. The 98-lot sale on April 5 was held by British pictures specialist Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington.

Nearly a quarter of the sale total at the auction held by Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington on April 5 came from a collection of original cartoons.

A work by one of Lebanon’s most eminent painters, Khalil Saleeby (1870-1928), surfaced at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) of Etwall in Derbyshire.

Tintin has had another good day out in Paris. In an Artcurial sale on April 8 a European collector paid €753,000 (£643,815), including premiums and taxes, to buy an ink drawing done by Hergé for the 1937 comic book Tintin in America.

The London jewellery dealership Wartski hosted a champagne reception to launch a new CD recording of Façade.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period April 13-19, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A major attraction in a PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) sale of April 6 was the Samuel Hessel ‘DNA’ collection of scientific papers, journals and books.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.